Brayden looked like she had just asked him if he wanted a happy ending. “Uh, no, I’m good.”
I giggled at his shell-shocked expression and covered my mouth. “It’s perfectly acceptable for men to enjoy a pedicure too, you know.”
He shot me a warning glance. “I don’t like people in my personal space.”
I cocked my head to the side and arched an eyebrow at him. “Really?”
He smiled smugly and played with the settings of his chair. “I don’t like strangers in my personal space.”
The ladies set to work massaging mine and Bella’s feet, and I sank deeper into the seat. It had been a long time since I indulged in something so frivolous. Being a starving artist didn’t afford me the luxury of such things. If I wanted cute toes, I had to paint them myself, or I would ask Gracie to do it. But it wasn’t the same. This kind of pampering was relaxing, and the tight knots in my back from standing and painting all day were being soothed by the rolling ball in the back of my chair.
I glanced over at Brayden. His eyes were closed, and his shoulders rolled gently as his back was massaged. I found myself wondering how he was holding up. He must be exhausted, taking care of a four-year-old and his dying mother.
His eyes snapped open when his phone rang, and he fished it out of his pocket. He let out an audible groan. “I’ll be right back,” he said, twisting out of the chair and making for the front door of the salon. He stepped outside, and I looked at Bella on my other side. She was slowly flipping through nail polish colors to choose what she wanted on her toes and fingers.
“Does your dad talk on his phone a lot?”
Bella glanced up from the wheel of sample colors. “Sometimes. Less than when we’re in Florida. I don’t think Grandma likes it.”
“Do you like it?”
“Daddy says it’s important.”
“It probably is,” I said.
Bella nodded and looked back down at the colors in her lap. She seemed to understand what Brayden’s work meant to him somehow. For a four-year-old, she was quite wise.
After fifteen minutes or so, Brayden came back in. He looked weary and frustrated, and he dropped back down into the chair beside me heavily.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. Just work stuff. I can’t leave that place without it imploding.”
“That sucks,” I sympathized.
He looked at me like I had said something revolutionary. “It does,” he said. “It really does. Especially right now.”
I reached over and offered him my hand. He looked down at it, then smiled at me as he wrapped his fingers around mine. I rested my head back in my chair and closed my eyes, and I enjoyed the pressure of his grip on my hand while the esthetician started applying a basecoat to my toes.
When his phone rang again, Brayden released my hand. “I’m sorry. I have to take this.”
I didn’t have time to say anything. He was up, out of the chair, and back outside before I could blink, leaving me in Bella’s company once more. His business certainly took up a lot of his time, which he presently couldn’t afford to give up.
At least, I wouldn’t have if I were in his shoes.
Bella ended up getting the same bright shade of red as me on her fingers and toes, and she wiggled all her digits when the esthetician put away the gel lamps and told us our polish had set.
“Pretty!” Bella cried as she admired her tiny toes.
“I like it too,” I agreed as I slid off my chair and put my socks and shoes back on. I tucked my jeans into my boots and went over to Bella to help her do the same.
“Why do you tuck your jeans into your boots?” Bella asked as I started doing the same to her pants.
“It keeps the cold out. There’s no way for it to get under your pants and into your socks. I don’t like having cold or wet feet. Do you?”
“No.” Bella shook her head.
I finished lacing her boots and lifted her out of the chair. She followed me out of the shop, and we both waved goodbye to the ladies before we stepped out into the cold.
Brayden was on the sidewalk. His shoulders were drawn inward against the cold, and he was speaking loudly into his phone. He sounded pissed.
I cleared my throat to let him know Bella and I were there, and he straightened up. His scowl vanished, and he waited for whoever was on the other end of the call to finish speaking.
“Drew, I can’t talk anymore. Just figure it out, all right?” Brayden hung up the phone and dropped it in his jacket pocket. “Let’s see those nails of yours, kiddo.” He walked over to Bella and dropped to a crouch beside her.
Bella held out her hands and Brayden complimented her color choice. She reveled in his praise and then burst into a fit of giggles as Brayden started teasing her by trying to put her hand in his mouth. “I bet it tastes good.”
“No, Daddy! It’s bad for you!”
Brayden chuckled and nudged her chin. “You’re right.”
“Hey,” I said, and he looked up at me. I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. “I actually have to get going. Thanks for the pampering.”
“Already?” he asked, getting to his feet and frowning at me.
“Yeah. Sorry. I hope everything with work is okay.” I bent down and gave Bella a quick hug before hopping off the sidewalk and walking toward the polar bear statue. “I’ll see you around.”
Today wasn’t the day to spend with Brayden. I was in no mood to deal with him on his phone all day, and I couldn’t ask him not to answer it. I knew his work was important. He owned the company, after all, and I knew what his priorities were.
His daughter, his mother, and his career.
I couldn’t fault him for it, but I could walk away, despite how much I wanted to bask in his company and his touch.
Chapter 19
Brayden
Bella’s cartoons were singing annoying songs in the living room as I sat at the kitchen table, reading through the documents Drew had sent over on my phone. Sifting through it all was exhausting, and I wasn’t feeling all that motivated to work.
My mother had been in bed since Bella and I got home from our afternoon at the beauty salon with Rein. It had been over twenty-four hours now, and I hated seeing her so weak and confined to her bed. I wanted to help somehow, but there wasn’t anything I could do to ease her suffering. She insisted that she wasn’t in pain and that she was just tired, but the tightness in her jaw and the discomfort in her eyes was enough to tell me she was lying.
I couldn’t fight off the sense that things were about to take a turn for the worse.
I jumped when my mother came into the kitchen and said my name.
She smiled weakly at my surprise. Then she made her way over to the table and took the chair beside me. She moved slowly and sat down like she was a woman riddled with arthritis. I tried to hide my look of concern, but she saw through me.
“I’m all right,” she said. “Just tired. It will pass.”
I didn’t believe her, but there was no point in saying that out loud. “Did you sleep well?”
“Well enough. I wanted to come out here and sit with you a while. How did yesterday afternoon go?”
I put my phone facedown on the table and sighed as I leaned back in my chair, which creaked under my weight. “Not as well as I wanted. Rein left early after I had to answer some work calls. I think she’s angry. Not that I blame her.”
My mother tucked a loose strand of gray hair behind her ear and crossed her legs. “You should invite her over for dinner tonight. I’d like to see her.”
“What? No. You need to take it easy today. Get your strength back. Having company isn’t—”
“Hush,” she said, waving away my concerns. “I would enjoy her company. It’s been a long time since I saw her. We can order in and have a relaxing evening.”
“No, she won’t want to see me after yesterday.”
My mother reached out with surprising speed and swiped my phone off the table. She flicked through
my contact list until she pulled up Rein’s phone number.
“Hey,” I grated out. “Don’t call her.”
She punched the green dial button and smiled at me as she lifted it to her ear. “What are you going to do about it? Get mad at your dying mother?”
I scowled. “No.”
“Exactly,” she said stiffly. Rein answered the phone a few seconds later. “Hi, Rein. This is Brayden’s mother.” My mother paused briefly as Rein responded, and she started smiling. She looked genuinely happy for the first time in days. “Thank you, dear. Listen, I know it’s strange, but I was wondering if you could come over for dinner tonight. We’re going to order pizza, Brayden, Bella, and me. I would love to see you and catch up.”
I waited apprehensively as Rein spoke into the phone. I could hear her voice but was unable to make out her words.
“We’ll see you around six?” my mother asked. Rein must have agreed because my mother hung up the phone and passed it back to me with a satisfied nod. “See? Easy as pie. She’s coming over. And she didn’t sound upset at all.”
“Because she’s upset with me, not with you,” I said with a sigh.
My mother patted my hand. “Stop being so dramatic.”
***
I watched through the living room window while Rein parked her car behind my truck under the carport. I didn’t say anything as I got up from the couch where my mother was dozing against the arm rest. I stepped around Bella, who lingered in the den between the living room and kitchen with one of her dolls and her numerous colorful outfits.
I opened the front door just as Rein hopped up the steps onto the porch, and I stepped outside into the cold, pulling the door closed behind me. In nothing but my Henley shirt and jeans, the cold was fierce.
“Hey,” I said to Rein, who studied me with an intense stare.
“Hey.”
“Thanks for coming. Sorry if she guilted you into it. She swiped my phone when I wasn’t paying attention. She might be sick, but she’s still as sneaky as ever.”
“She didn’t guilt me,” Rein said. “I wanted to come.”
“You did?”
Rein nodded. “I haven’t seen her in a long time, and I don’t know if I’ll get another chance.”
Right. She was here to see my mother, not me. She moved to go around me, but I caught her wrist as she reached for the door. “I’m also sorry about yesterday afternoon. I should have spent the day with you and Bella, not on the phone. I screwed up.” I held out my phone to her. “Hold on to this for me so I won’t have access to it tonight?”
She looked from me to the phone in my hand. Her hesitation made me think for a moment that she might shoot me down, but after a few prolonged seconds, she took the phone out of my hand and put it in her pocket. “All right. Can we go in now? It’s freezing out here.”
I smiled and opened the door for her.
I brought her into the living room after she took off her jacket and boots. My mother was rubbing sleep from her eyes and pushing herself off the sofa as Rein was bombarded by Bella, who shouted her name and made a fuss about showing Rein her doll. Rein, always polite, showed keen interest in all the doll’s outfits until Bella grew bored and resumed playing. Then Rein went to my mother and pulled her in for a tight, long hug.
I hung back and watched, unsure of what was expected of me.
When the two women parted, my mother cupped Rein’s cheeks in her hands. “It’s so very good to see you, my dear.”
“You too, Arlene.” Rein squeezed my mother’s shoulders. “I wish you had told me. I would have been here. All I do is go to that stupid gallery every day. I have so much time.”
My mother gave her a sad smile before patting her cheek and letting her hands fall to her sides. “A young woman like you has more important things to do than tend to me. Besides, I was perfectly fine on my own until a few weeks ago. Come, have a seat. We ordered the food already, and it should be here any minute.”
The pizza guy came on cue three minutes later, and I paid him at the door and brought the pizza in. Bella flocked to it like a chicken to feed and grabbed a piping hot slice before I had the lid opened all the way. I passed her a plate and napkin and asked her not to get anything on her grandmother’s carpets or furniture. Bella agreed with a mouthful of cheese and crust.
The rest of us dug in too, enjoying the greasy food as well as the company. I was delighted to see my mother eat an entire piece, and she seemed to enjoy it too. She scarfed it down in less than five minutes while Rein filled her in on how her art business was doing.
As it turned out, it wasn’t as successful as Rein had led me to believe. She was a proud woman, so I understood why she hadn’t told me that she wasn’t really making any money. By the sounds of things, she was stretched pretty thin financially. If her parents hadn’t left her the house after they passed away, she wouldn’t have been able to afford rent anywhere else.
My mother assured her that good things were likely around the corner. “The best things always come after the hardest struggle.”
Rein licked pizza sauce off her thumb and nodded. “I know. The struggle can end any time.” She chuckled.
“Do the two of you remember the time you had your first kiss?” my mother asked suddenly.
I looked up at her sharply, trying to convey with my eyes that this subject wasn’t up for discussion. She looked past me at Rein, who was nodding.
“Yes. On the swing that used to be on your front porch.”
“After a school dance,” my mother added.
Rein nodded wistfully. “I remember the yellow dress I was wearing.”
“Me too,” I said. “It had frills on the sleeves. And lace along the hem.”
Rein blinked at me. “You remember that?”
“Sure I do.”
I caught my mother smiling as she looked back and forth between us. She saw me catch her, and she dropped her gaze to her lap. “I have a lot of fond memories of the two of you in this house, but nothing tops that night. She was upset with you because you never worked up the nerve to ask her to dance. Do you remember, Brayden?”
“High school dances were intimidating,” I said defensively.
“You were being a baby.” Rein stuck her tongue out at me.
I rolled my eyes. “Sorry that I was afraid to ask the prettiest girl in school to dance with me. You both know how terrible of a dancer I was. Am.”
“You’re a good dancer,” my mother and Rein said in unison.
“No, he’s not,” Bella chimed in from her spot on the floor.
The three of us burst out laughing, and the joke alleviated some of the tension between Rein and me. Thinking back to that kiss on the porch had me feeling exactly like the nervous seventeen-year-old kid I had been. Rein had been sitting beside me on the swing, her hip pressed to mine, and she was looking up at me with wide eyes and slightly parted lips. I could smell her candy-scented body spray, and I remember how badly I wanted to taste the sparkling lip gloss she wore.
When I finally worked up the nerve to kiss her, I hadn’t been disappointed. The kiss was sweet, tender, and a little pathetic, but perfect nonetheless.
I caught my mother yawning after another hour passed. Rein saw it too and said she had to go home. She had an early morning. She hugged my mother and kissed her cheek, and then I walked her out to her car.
Which refused to start.
After ducking back into the house to grab my keys and to tell my mother that I would be driving Rein home, I met her back outside and we both piled into my rental truck. The heat kicked on, and I reversed around her little red coupe parked behind me and out onto the street.
I was walking her to her front door all too soon. I didn’t want the night to end. I was enjoying having time with her—time that I knew was fleeting. I was constantly aware of the ticking clock above my head, reminding me that soon, very soon, I would be heading back to Florida with Bella.
After I buried my mother.
Rein�
�s closeness offered a familiar comfort that made those thoughts less dark. Her smile and her voice gave me a sense of hope that I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Rein unlocked her front door and stepped inside. She kicked off her boots, shrugged out of her jacket, and walked inside without looking back at me.
“Hey,” I called as I followed her in and closed the door behind me to keep the cold out. “I’m going to need my phone back.”
Rein spun on her heel, her dark hair fanning out around her. “Then come and get it,” she teased, pulling it from her back pocket and waving it in front of me.
I reached for it, and she yanked it away. She giggled and scrambled backward as I reached for it again. Then I caught her sleeve and pulled her to me. I wrapped my arm around her lower back, holding her body against mine, and stared down into her brilliant eyes.
How had I ever walked away from her?
Chapter 20
Rein
Here I was in his arms again, staring up at him and knowing that I had already gone too far to turn back now. A fire burned below my belly and at the tips of my fingers. I needed him, and the glint in his eye was his promise that he needed me just as badly.
Maybe he needed me even more. Life had thrown him a huge, devastating curve ball, and if I could pull him away from that misery, even for a moment, I felt like I had an obligation to do so.
Or that was how I was justifying the fact that I was about to fuck him again.
It doesn’t have to be anything more than sex, I assured myself as my eyes closed and he kissed me. The darkness behind my eyelids exploded with fireworks at the sensation of his lips on mine. Good God, why does he feel so good?
His strong hands wandered up my back and into my hair, and I didn’t fight him. I let him ravage me, and I slipped my hands up the inside of his shirt to feel the familiar muscles there, along with the smooth skin and the taut chest. Our lips parted as I yanked his shirt over his head, and then we crushed our mouths to each other once more. I tucked my forefingers in his belt loops and began pulling him toward me, backing up slowly as his tongue explored my mouth and mine explored his.
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